STS203: History of Technology

Unit 6: Technology and ImperialismThe 19th century is often referred to as the Age of Progress
because of the many benefits derived from industrial production.
However, it is necessary to think more critically about the notion of
progress as being intimately tied to imperialism and contemporary
theories of civilization. During the 19th and early
20th centuries, industrializing nations competed for natural
resources and labor across the globe. Sentiments of nationalism, social
Darwinism, and racial science drove the competition. Technology was at
the center of this civilizing mission, both as the means through which
imperial nations pacified subject populations and how they measured
civilization itself. They ranked civilizations according to relative
levels of science and technology on an imagined hierarchy of
development, in which white Europeans usually appeared on top.

This unit will complicate your understanding of progress and
civilization in Western history. It will illustrate how cutting-edge
industrial technologies like telegraphy, steamboats, trains, and machine
guns served imperial interests. We will focus especially on Britain in
India and Africa, and American expansion westward and into the Pacific.

Unit 6 Time Advisory
This unit should take you approximately 10.5 hours to complete.

☐ Subunit 6.1: 1.5 hours
☐ Subunit 6.2: 4.5 hours

☐ Subunit 6.2.1: 2 hours

☐ Subunit 6.2.2: 2.5 hours

☐ Subunit 6.3: 4.5 hours
☐ Subunit 6.3.1: 0.25 hours

☐ Subunit 6.3.2: 1.5 hours

☐ Subunit 6.3.3: 1.75 hours

☐ Subunit 6.3.4: 1 hour

Unit6 Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:
- explain James Lewis Morgan’s three stages of human development;
- identify and explain technologies of British imperialism;
- analyze and discuss how John Gast links technology to progress in
the painting, Age of Progress;
- explain the negative impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on the
Plains Indians;
- explain the important of the Panama Canal to American imperialist
ambitions; and
- explain the Matthew Perry mission.

6.1 Social Evolution Theory and Imperialism6.1.1 Anthropological Theories
- Reading: University of Alabama’s Department of Anthropology:
Heather Long and Kelly Chakov’s “Social Evolutionism”
Link: University of Alabama’s Department of Anthropology: Heather
Long and Kelly Chakov’s “Social
Evolutionism” (HTML)

Instructions: Click on the link above, and read the “Basic
Premises” and “Points of Reaction” sections. Early anthropologists
ranked the peoples of the world and introduced terms such as
“savage” and “civilization” that contemporary imperialists easily
co-opted. Notice how central technological developments were to
Lewis Henry Morgan’s theory in particular, and study his three
stages of evolution.

Reading and note-taking should take approximately 1 hour.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Click on the link above, and study this advertisement
by the Pear’s Soap Company (1899). Take notes on how the company
represented its product as a gift of civilization. Imposing
progressive technologies on foreign peoples became a major goal (and
rationalization) for imperial nations.

Studying the image and note-taking should take approximately 30
minutes.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

6.2 Technology of Imperialism6.2.1 Industrialization and Imperialism
- Reading: History World International: Stuart B. Schwartz’s
“Industrial Rivalries and the Partition of the World, 1870-1914”
Link: History World International: Stuart B. Schwartz’s “Industrial
Rivalries and the Partition of the World,
1870-1914” (HTML)

Instructions: Click on the link above, and read the entire text.
This selection ties the Industrial Revolution to Imperialism,
focusing especially on the technological advantages of European
nations as they subjugated non-European peoples. Pay close attention
to the section “Unequal Combat.”

Reading and note-taking should take approximately 2 hours.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

6.2.2 The Tools of Empire
- Reading: The British Empire: Stephen Luscombe’s “Railways” and
“Telegraphy”
Link: The British Empire: Stephen Luscombe’s
“Railways” and
“Telegraphy” (HTML)

Instructions: Click on the links above, and read these two webpages
for a close look at how the steam train and telegraph, respectively,
helped the British Empire consolidate its power in India and
Africa.

Reading and note-taking should take approximately 1 hour and 30
minutes.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: The webpage linked above introduces you to Daniel
Headrick’s book, Tools of Empire: Technology and European
Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1981). The chosen
passages concern steam boats and medical advances in particular.

Reading and note-taking should take approximately 1 hour.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Click on the link above, and study this image and the
contemporary description below the image. Pay close attention to the
figures, objects, animals, action, and color scheme. You should
consider the role that Gast gives to technology and industry in
American Westward expansion.

Studying the image and note-taking should take approximately 15
minutes.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Click on the links above, and read these pages on the
Transcontinental Railroad and its effect on the Plains Indians. Note
the positive effects it had for white settlement and the U.S.
economy. Pay close attention to how aggressively Americans acquired
native lands and the devastating effects of railroads and white
settlement on native life and the buffalo herds.

Readings and note-taking should take approximately 1 hour and 30
minutes.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Click on the link above, and view the entire video.
This short retrospective video on the Panama Canal from 1934 focuses
on the engineering feat itself and exhibits the same patriotic pride
that would have attended construction (1904-1914) under Theodore
Roosevelt. Notice the massive steam-powered shovels.

Watching this video and pausing to take notes should take
approximately 15 minutes.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Click on the link above, and read this page for an
introduction to the political context of the building of the Panama
Canal. Pay close attention to the Monroe Doctrine, President
Roosevelt’s interests in the Pacific, US relations with Columbia,
and Panama’s independence from Columbia.

Reading and note-taking should take approximately 1 hour and 30
minutes.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Click on the link above, and read the entire webpage.
In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States sailed to
Japan on steam-powered warships to force the secluded country to
trade with the United States. The reading focuses on observations
and depictions of the ships themselves – known to the Japanese as
“black ships” due to the billowing black smoke of the coal-fired
steam engines.

Reading and note-taking should take approximately 1 hour.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Complete the linked assessment.
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